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Padres allow 4 runs in 10th, start post-All-Star-break stretch with wild loss to Royals

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on

Published in Baseball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Any team can beat any team on any night. Anything can happen in extra innings.

And on and on.

There are so many qualifiers that make baseball unpredictable and help to justify any number of losses in a 162-game season.

But they simply do not matter anymore. Not for the Padres.

The Royals beat the Padres 7-6 Friday with a walk-off single by Carter Jensen in the 10th inning that capped a night that provided more evidence that this just might not be the Padres’ year.

A flurry of insanity got the game to extra innings. And it got crazier from there.

The Padres scored three times in the top of the 10th only to watch the Royals score four runs in the bottom of the inning.

Royals’ right-hander Alex Lange was one out from ending his team’s first victory in six games when Ty France sent a sinker in the heart of the strike zone 421 feet and into the seats beyond left field to tie the game 3-3 in the top of the ninth.

With Mason Miller in, Royals No. 9 hitter Isaac Collins began the bottom of the ninth with a single blooped to left field that fell just out of third baseman Manny Machado’s glove and just inside the line. Carter Jensen then lined a double to right-center field, the first extra-base hit allowed by Miller in 225 batters.

The Padres intentionally walked Bobby Witt Jr. to load the bases before Josh Rojas and Lane Thomas struck out.

Miguel Andujar led off the 10th with his third double of the game, scoring automatic runner Jake Cronenworth. Pinch-hitter Sung-Mun Song laid down a sacrifice bunt that Royals pitcher Lucas Erceg bobbled, putting runners at the corners with no outs. A single by Fernando Tatis Jr. drove in Andujar and moved Song to third. After a groundout by Jackson Merrill moved Tatis up a base, Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly gave the Padres a 6-3 lead.

Hart surrendered a single to Salvador Perez to start the 10th, which moved automatic runner Vinnie Pasquantino to third. Pasquantino scored on an infield single by Michael Massey, and the Royals loaded the bases on Nick Loftin’s bunt single.

Another run scored on Isaac Collins’ groundout, and Jensen’s single through the left side ended it.

The Padres came out of the All-Star break needing to win a lot of games. And the Royals, a team that was 21 games under .500 and tied for the major leagues’ worst record heading into Friday, seemed a perfect first opponent.

The Padres went ahead 2-1 in the fifth inning with help from an error before giving back a run that tied the game in the sixth inning.

The Royals took a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning on Massey’s two-out single off Adrian Morejón.

Ty France tied the game with a two-out home run in the top of the ninth.

Michael King, ostensibly the Padres’ only dependable starting pitcher, struggled through five innings but allowed only Thomas’ home run leading off the bottom of the second inning.

 

That gave the Royals a 1-0 lead.

But King kept the deficit there after some initial help from Tatis and despite fighting his command virtually all night.

Pasquantino followed Thomas’ home run by sending a ball off the wall in right field that Tatis fielded and threw to second base to get Pasquantino. King then hit a batter and surrendered a single before getting out of the inning with a fly ball and a strikeout.

He survived a leadoff double and a two-out walk in the third before working his only 1-2-3 inning in the fourth.

King worked around a one-out walk in the fifth and departed the game with a 2-1 lead.

That lead was achieved in the fifth inning with significant help.

To that point, Lugo had allowed a pair of walks and a pair of singles.

The Padres hit three long fly ball outs in the first inning, including one by Fernando Tatis Jr. on the fifth pitch of the game that right fielder Jac Caglianone leaped to catch at the top of the 8-foot wall.

They did not hit another fly ball until Jake Cronenworth lofted a fly ball to left field for the first out of the fifth inning.

By then, they had hit into two double plays, one after Machado’s leadoff walk in the second inning and one after Bogaerts’ leadoff single in the fourth.

France began the fifth by taking a curveball to the backside, and he got to third base on Miguel Andujar’s one-out double.

That brought up Luis Campusano, who hit a grounder up the middle that froze France at third until the ball caromed off Massey’s glove at second and rolled into center field. Both runners scored to put the Padres ahead.

Tatis followed with a single before Jackson Merrill grounded into an inning-ending double play.

The lead was gone an inning later.

Bradgley Rodriguez began the sixth by yielding a single to Thomas and walking Pasquantino. He then got a grounder to shortstop that would have at least eliminated Pasquantino at second base had Bogaerts not thrown the ball wide of the bag, allowing Thomas to score while Pasquantino ran to third base.

Rodriguez ended the inning with a strikeout and a double play.

But the Padres’ only hit over the final four innings was Andujar’s two-out double in the seventh.


©2026 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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